Five heartfelt lessons from Modi’s recent Israel visit
Indian Prime Minister backs Netanyahu despite ongoing violence in occupied Palestinian territories, drawing global concern and debate worldwide.
The image was designed to symbolize friendship: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wrapped in a bear hug by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. On the surface, it was a warm embrace between two strongmen who see in each other a kindred political spirit. But for millions watching from Gaza, the West Bank, and across the Arab world, that hug carried the weight of a silent betrayal.
Modi has just wrapped up a two-day visit to Israel, a trip bathed in ceremony and backslapping camaraderie, yet marked by a deafening silence regarding Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza—a campaign that international rights groups and a growing number of nations have labeled a genocidal war.
The contrast could not have been starker. On one side, the red carpet. Netanyahu personally escorted Modi through the solemn halls of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, a deeply emotional site meant to underscore the Jewish people’s historical trauma and their right to self-determination. Later, Modi stood before the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, as Netanyahu beamed. You are more than a friend. You are a brother,” Netanyahu declared, his voice thick with affection. Modi was awarded the Knesset’s highest honour, a rare gesture for a foreign leader.
On the other side of the separation wall, there were no honours. In Gaza, where the bombs have barely rested, families picking through rubble heard the news of Modi’s visit with a familiar sense of abandonment. In the West Bank, Palestinian shopkeepers in Hebron and farmers in the Jordan Valley, living under daily military occupation, wondered aloud if the world had forgotten them entirely. India, once the voice of the Global South and a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause at the United Nations, had now twice sent its leader to Israel without so much as a stop in Ramallah.
This was Modi’s second visit to Israel, following his historic 2017 trip. Back then, he also skipped a visit to Palestine, signalling a major shift in New Delhi’s foreign policy. For decades after India’s independence in 1947, the country opposed the creation of Israel, voting consistently with the Arab bloc and the Non-Aligned Movement. Mahatma Gandhi himself had deep sympathies with the Palestinian people. Formal diplomatic relations were only established in 1992, a full 44 years after Israel’s founding.
But since Modi took office in 2014, that history has been rapidly rewritten. The relationship is now anchored in hard-nosed pragmatism: defence deals worth billions, counter-terrorism cooperation, and high-tech innovation in agriculture and water management. For Modi, Israel is a “start-up nation” that can help India modernize. For Netanyahu, India is a massive market and a crucial geopolitical counterweight in Asia.
Yet, the human cost of this realignment is being paid in Palestinian blood. Since October 7th, 2023, Israel’s military offensive has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, the majority women and children. Hospitals have been bombed, entire neighbourhoods levelled, and a generation of children faces starvation. Throughout it all, India has walked a tightrope. While officially calling for “restraint” and a “two-state solution,” Modi’s government has refrained from condemning Israel’s actions in the strong terms used by other nations. At the UN, India has often abstained from votes critical of Israel, a far cry from its historical position.
For Palestinians, the symbolism of the Yad Vashem visit without a corresponding gesture of solidarity towards them stings deeply. They feel their own nakba, or catastrophe, is being erased. “We see the hugs in Jerusalem, and we feel the cold shoulder,” said a Palestinian educator in East Jerusalem, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. “India used to stand with the oppressed. Now, it seems, it stands with power.”
Netanyahu, facing his own domestic pressures and international isolation over the war, welcomed Modi’s embrace as a lifeline. It was proof that not all of the world is against him. For Modi, the visit boosts his image at home as a global statesman who can dine with world leaders.
But for the families mourning in Gaza, the friendship on display in Jerusalem is not a matter of diplomacy. And the silence from their once-friend, India, is louder than any bomb.